Neo-humanists are committed to a key set of values: happiness, creative actualization, reason in harmony with emotion, human flourishing.
When I think of Paul Kurtz, I think of three adjectives: Visionary, Indefatigable, and Productive.
Paul Kurtz was a visionary in many ways. Personally, I appreciated his recognition that the future of secular humanism had to include a more diverse demographic. The future of secular humanism cannot continue to ignore the more than 50 million people that we call Latinos/Hispanics in the United States, and he knew that.
Paul Kurtz was in the business of saving minds, not souls, and he was very good at it. He produced many followers who will continue his work. Paul Kurtz left us with organizations and other vehicles through which secular humanism continues to assert its place in the public square. Even his critics must acknowledge that.
What is the good life, and is it achievable? People have long sought for happiness, and they have explored the ends of the earth for its realization, but in different ways: the quest for the Holy Grail; a life of service; the delights of pleasure and sensual consummation, or of quiet withdrawal.
What is Mindfulness Rational Living? Glad you asked! Mindfulness Rational Living is the combination of two very powerful approaches that have been proven to help people live more productive, peaceful, and happy lives. The first, Rational Emotive Behavioral / Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a Western influence and the second Mindfulness / Zen is an Eastern influence. The research that now supports these two approaches is impressive. Ignoring this is tantamount to making a public announcement that you simply do not want to live a good life.
Humanist trailblazer Paul Kurtz, founder of the Institute for Science and Human Values (ISHV), died on October 20, 2012 at his home in Amherst, New York at the age of 86. However, he was fortunate to have lived a good, long and incredibly productive life.
What I think is rather unique about humanism today as a first principle is that “we are citoyen du monde;” that is, citizens of the world community, members of the human species over beyond our gender, national, racial, or religious affiliations, which all to often have separated human beings in the past.
This book is subtitled, “Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century.” These two humanists are not the first to re-write the Ten Commandments. However, like probably all of the others before them, they greatly improve upon the “original” ten, which is extremely easy to do. Lex Bayer is on the board of the Humanist Connection, a group that reaches out to Stanford University and Silicon Valley. John Figdor is a humanist chaplain at Stanford. Like many other atheists, they believe it is not enough to simply reject a belief in God. Atheists, they contend, should become humanists and have something to live for. They can learn to live ethical and happy lives.